Oscar Onley sprints to great 3rd place in Poland after strong teamwork

The penultimate day of racing at the Tour de Pologne saw the peloton take on a staple of the race with the uphill finish at Bukovina Resort, and it’s punchy gradients. Setting out with a plan, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL wanted to help take control of the day and make the race hard in the finale with a view of going for a top stage result with Oscar Onley and potentially moving up on GC through that.
Riding well as a group throughout the day, the team stayed safe in the bunch and protected Onley while the peloton kept the break in check. Coming into the final 40 kilometres the team then came towards the front and alongside other teams upped the pace, thinning things out as the chase behind the break continued. On the penultimate ascent of the day Onley attacked but was quickly shut down by the other GC contenders and things regrouped, with the last man standing from the break caught. Coming onto the final three kilometre climb to the line Romain Bardet moved Onley up expertly and increased the tempo, stringing the peloton out. Once again Onley attacked from his wheel but he just couldn’t get separation from the other GC riders. In the end the stage came down to a reduced uphill sprint where Onley showed great legs, alongside some grit and determination to fight to third place on the day moving up to tenth place on GC.
Onley expressed: “The guys did another good job to hold me in position coming into all the key sections today. I really have to thank Romain for the work he did to try and make the last two climbs hard enough hoping to reduce the group. In the end it came down to a sprint again where I managed to pick up third place.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston continued: “I think it was a really good and solid team performance from the guys today. We wanted to make the race as hard as possible to give Oscar the best possible chance to go for a result on the stage and try and move up on the GC. I think the guys did that really well. Oscar gave everything to get third on the stage and he even tried to go on the attack to take time but he wasn’t given any leeway from the GC group. I think we can say it was a really nice result for him and the team.”